Marketers. It's the network effect of Facebook and Google's captive ecosystem — oh, and the fact that people love the companies' products — that attracts the large number of users that marketers want to reach. I believe that overall, consumers benefit from the personalization that can come from machines that know things about us. But it's an area that governments and regulators need to understand better and quickly to ensure that consumers don't lose complete control of their personal data to businesses. On this side of the pond, the U.S. Senate's decision this spring to
Reverse incoming privacy rules and allow internet service providers to sell consumer data without their consent is not not a good sign that they understand the long term implications. Lawmakers have not offered a plan that would address data privacy jewelry retouching service comprehensively and include the Facebook and Google duopoly as well as AT&T and Verizon. (I still subconsciously raise my eyebrows thinking back to a conversation with an AOL executive in which he ecstatically told me about the first time he peeked into every type of data Verizon has on the people.) Data is where the GDPR could have an impact in the EU. This impact will be very different,
however, if the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) treats Google as a single entity, rather than requiring user consent for each product. The latter would mean that Google's data wires could easily be interrupted. The former would further cement Google's data dominance. Tuesday's EC decision indicates a lack of understanding of how search engines work and the real concerns that come with a search engine dominating our lives. Regulating in the name of giving a lifeline to competing CSEs is not the answer. Featured Snippets: